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Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy, http://buzz2bucks.com.

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The Brand is the Identity
A brand may refer to products or services, but  branding involves much more than that. It is the process by which those  offerings and the values of the company are communicated to the buying public.  When done correctly, this process can clearly identify any company and enable  customers to clearly see exactly what makes that company different from all of  its business rivals.

Understand the Audience
When projecting an identity to the buying public,  make sure that the identity is consistent with the needs and vales of potential  customers. It is great for a company to have a personality, but that personality  will mean nothing if it fails to resonate with customers. Every attempt to  create and establish a company brand should only be done after extensive  research focused on audience sensibilities is completed.

Use the Right Methods
Brands require tools. These include logos,  recognizable company colors, a motto, and other easily identified methods for  distinguishing one company from another. While it is easy to get caught up in  the overall look of any logo or design, it is important to always remember that  customers care less about the actual aesthetics of these tools than the fact  that they are consistently used, and therefore, remembered and recognized

Be Consistent
Indeed, consistency is the key to successfully establishing  a company identity. Logos should remain fairly consistent over time. A company  motto that reflects the business’ core values should remain the same so that  customers come to identify the company with those ideals. Keep it simple, but  steady. Even a bland company motto or unattractive logo will take root in  customers’ minds if they are seen and heard on a consistent basis over time.

Use a variety of Mediums
Today’s companies cannot just rely upon the old  methods of communication. In addition to print media and broadcast  advertisements, companies should also develop clearly branded websites and make  use of the full range of social media available today. Every method for  communicating with customers is an opportunity to further develop the company  brand.

Focus on Value and Values
The brand should ultimately be associated with  values. To accomplish this, every interaction with customers must be  accomplished with those values in mind. This includes every advertisement, every  display, and every bit of contact between employees of the company and the  customers they serve. Many businesses become so obsessed with the external  aspects of creating their brands, that they neglect the very real role of  employee decorum demonstrated by actual contact with customers.

When executed properly, any strategy for building a brand can reap huge  rewards for the company. Entrepreneurs who adhere to these basic principles of  business branding will find themselves experiencing greater success as their  corporate identities become firmly established in the public mind.

Aveta Solutions – Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma  training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts,  and yellow belts.

By Phillip Davis

As companies grow, product lines expand and market conditions change,  business owners often find themselves with a company brand image that no longer  reflects who they are or what they do. Perhaps they started in a niche market,  or with a very specific product, and built their entire company identity around  it — and the business now serves a different, bigger or more diverse customer  base.

What to do?

A sure symptom of this brand misalignment is the constant need to explain or  clarify what the company really does. Or when an owner pines “We’re more than  just (fill in the service or product category.) At this point, a new brand  strategy is obviously in order, but it begs the question “Do I need to  reposition my company or completely rebrand it?”

Reposition if the name is right but the message is wrong

Repositioning a company makes sense when the company brand name is well  established and not in any way misleading. In other words, it’s not so much an  issue with the identity as it is with the message and focus.  Apple expanded beyond its original core product line of computers, but that  didn’t require a change in their name. They simply dropped the word “Computers”  from their name and shifted their branding to reflect their “Think Different”  philosophy. They no longer position their brand as a “computer company” but more  as a cool, digital lifestyle provider.

Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure felt restricted by their brand image as a  racing school. It affected their approach to advertising, marketing and product  development. After carefully determining their core value proposition, they  re-emerged with the tag line “Full Throttle Living!” The emphasis  shifted from the cars to the experience. And that experience has since been  expanded to include World War II re-enactments and firefighting drills. They now  position themselves as a lifetime adventure company that simulates a day in the  life of an adrenaline-charged professional. That’s a big departure from a racing  school, and that’s the power of repositioning.

Old Spice has made a concerted effort to reposition its brand from a stodgy  aftershave product to a cool, contemporary array of “fragrant man goods.” Their viral video  campaign has served to introduce a whole new audience to this once  old-school cologne.

Rebrand if your company name causes confusion

Rebranding comes into play when the original company identity has grown  outdated, confusing or outright misleading. The owners and staff can all agree  on the brand’s current position and message, but the customer can’t get past the  name itself. CompUSA struggles to brand itself as more than just computers.  Radio Shack remains mentally tethered to an old technology and a dilapidated  building. Burlington Coat Factory sells more than just coats. At some point, the  cost of clarifying a brand becomes such a drag co-efficient that it makes more  sense to start with a clean slate.

Would 3M be recognized as a global leader in innovation if it had remained  The Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company? Popular consumer electronics  company LG rebranded twice, from the original legacy name of Lak-Hui Chemical  Industrial Corporation to Lucky Goldstar, and in 1995 to their current moniker  of LG with the tag line “Life’s Good.”

Repositioning and rebranding keep a company current, relevant and  profitable

Both repositioning and rebranding serve the goal of greater brand clarity.  Repositioning highlights a company’s emerging role and redefines its new  territory in the marketplace, (often while keeping the legacy name in place,  e.g. Apple) Rebranding addresses the outward facing identity of the company,  typically the name and visual components, and helps to alleviate and/or correct  misconceptions about the direction of the business (e.g. 3M and KFC).

Rebranding and/or repositioning offer unique and specific benefits when  applied correctly. Clarifying the brand identity and market position allows  potential customers to place the company in the right mental “box” for easy and  accurate recall. This type of intuitive branding reduces customer confusion,  improves bottom line performance and positions your company for continued  success. With careful consideration, rebranding and repositioning will have your  customers remembering and revisiting you more often.

How about your company? Have you considered or attempted a rebrand? If so,  share the ups and downs of your experience so others can benefit.

Phillip Davis is president and owner of Tungsten Branding, strategic company branding consultants specializing in name development,  rebranding and brand positioning.

You’re an expert who knows how to get the work done, generate results and  make a difference to your customers and your colleagues. Naturally you want to  share how you do it all. But wait–your audience may not be ready for the  ‘How’.

Successful persuasion taps into people’s emotions and inspires them to  imagine a better situation. This is true whether you’re marketing IT products,  professional services or a cultural shift within your company. To be a  persuasive speaker you’ll need to lead the audience to an image of  perfection–or at least, improvement. Until they feel it, they won’t be ready to  do it.

Focus on the “what” and the “why”

In any speaking setting that is not training or a workshop, your presentation  must focus on “what” and “why.” The “what” is the action(s) they should take to  reach their goal. The “why” makes it clear that the “what” will help them reach  their goal.

Let’s look at an example: You are responsible for leading a major change of  behavior in your company. You could just lay down the law and threaten  punishment for anyone who resists. That isn’t likely to generate a favorable  response. You could offer a carrot–do this and you’ll get a reward. That’s also  a short-term approach that could lead to offering ever-increasing carrots.

First describe the behavioral change

The best approach is to describe the behavioral change, which is the “what.”  Describe it in many dimensions-how it will affect their daily actions, and also  their feelings, expectations and interactions. Then talk about the “why”–why is  the new behavior valuable to them as individuals; you might eventually talk  about why the change is valuable to the company as a whole, but whatever you do,  don’t start with that! People always put their self-interest first and  foremost.

The “what” and the “why” are more than enough for a one hour speech or  presentation. Give your audience of employees or colleagues time to savor the  image you’ve helped them picture. Encourage them to keep thinking about it.  Encourage them to add details to the picture; to discuss their visions with  their peers; to move from today and tomorrow to 6 months or a year ahead.

Avoid topics such as “5 Ways to Do X” or “The 7 Factors of Success” or “Three  Steps to Learning Y.” Instead, speak about benefits to the audience: “Success  Comes to Those Who Envision Change” or “You’re the Leader, So Lead.” “Success”  or “Leadership” are the “what” and the rest of your speech is the “why.”

Persuade first on an emotional level

People aren’t ready to be instructed how to do new behaviors until they’ve  fully internalized and integrated the new vision. It’s no different than the way  you might approach a new sport–if you can’t imagine how much you’ll enjoy  playing golf, you won’t learn how to play golf no matter how effective the  instructor. Your “What and Why” speech or presentation is the warm-up that makes  them ready for the “How.”

Persuade first on an emotional level and instruct later on an intellectual  level.

Business speakers who confidently engage their audiences meet their business  and personal objectives. Promotion? More revenue? Elite clients? You increase  your likelihood of success with high-quality business presentation skills. Susan  Trivers consults with and coaches executives and managers to persuade their  audiences to take actions across the spectrum of business goals. Learn more  about how you can become a great speaker at http://www.susantrivers.com and http://www.greatspeakingcoach.com

• “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the  game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective  capacity of its people to create value.” Values such as outstanding customer  service, teamwork, excellence, integrity, and stakeholder value don’t translate  into the same kind of behavior in all companies, such as how people actually go  about their work, how they interact with one another, and what motivates them.  Employees’ actions and behaviors emanate from an organization’s culture, not  from agreed-upon values or written policies.

JFD Performance Solutions ( http://www.jfdperfsolutions.com  )
As a business coaching and consulting firm, we specialize in helping  individuals to reach more of their potential, companies to achieve greater  results, and teams to work better together. We help our clients implement  sustainable change and be more successful.

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion of organization  development and change practitioners, whereby three seasoned consultants shared  their insights on culture change at a local professional meeting. Each of these  individuals were seasoned internal consultants for major corporations or  academic institutions, and each was responsible for initiating, facilitating,  and overseeing culture change programs in their organizations.

I was moved and  inspired by their wisdom and wish to share some of that wisdom with others  facing similar challenges.

Lesson 1.

Build the Infrastructure, Be the Bridge

One of the panelists shared that he saw his role as helping to build the  infrastructure for change. He described how culture change comes about with both  a shift in thinking and in behaviors. While he can not control others’  behaviors, he certainly can control his own.

This was one of the key insights he  had after attending institution-wide workshops and events regarding the new  culture they were trying to build to execute the new organizational strategy.

He  kept the various large group meetings and training events top of mind whenever  he was interacting with his clients. He would purposefully use language and  model new ways of behaving and interacting. When appropriate, he would ask  questions of his clients regarding the conclusions they had reached after being  exposed to the institution’s initiatives, and what they believed they could  control or direct within their span of influence.

He focused on synchronization  – between his local constituents and clients and the university as a whole – so  that the institution could begin operating in a more connected fashion. He  summed up his actions in building this infrastructure by saying that his role  was to be a bridge for his clients – between the clients’ local agenda and the  university’s goals – to connect today’s reality to tomorrow’s possibilities.

As change agents for our organizations, our role often is to be the bridge  between the old and the new. How we construct this bridge and the foundation  upon which it sets directly impacts our clients’ ability to traverse across it  and reach the destination. This panelist’s comments echo the sentiments of  Charlie and Edie Seashore’s work on self as an instrument and Edgar Schein’s  classic writings on process consultation.

At our best, we can be a powerful  medium to help our clients achieve the change they long for in their lives. At  our worst, we can inhibit, block, and even prevent that change from happening.  We have a great responsibility to uphold in this arena.

Lesson 2. Courageously Advocate for Alignment

The second panelist chose to share insights with the group on where he had  “screwed up” culture change initiatives in the past. His cautionary tale  included three potential traps for the change agent: 1) focusing on events,  meetings, or activities as opposed to the entire journey and process, 2) putting  HR in charge of a culture change program that ultimately needs to be driven and  managed within the business, and 3) allowing existing policies and procedures to  remain unchanged even in the face of misalignment to the new stated goals of the  initiative.

This panelist was extremely candid in his appraisal of his own past  performance, as he believed that earlier in his career he lacked the courage and  conviction to “push executives to change policies that were not in sync with the  new direction.” Unfortunately, this is a common experience.

Organizations on one  hand advocate a new strategy and direction for their people, but on the other  hand fail to set people up for success to achieve that strategy. One of the  easiest ways to destroy an initiative is to actually encourage people to do  things that undermine the new direction. Stephen Kerr’s classic article. On  the Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping for B, summarizes this phenomenon  well.

Essentially, it reminds us that people do those things for which they are  rewarded. Not getting the desired behavior from your employees? It is quite  possible that your policies, procedures, rewards, and consequences are out of  alignment with stated goals and objectives.

Lesson 3. Eat the Elephant Ear, Not the Entire Elephant

Just the mention of the phrase “culture change” can stop people in their  tracks. “What? You want to change how we do things around here? Good luck!” The  third panelist quite eloquently explained how approaching culture change in bite  sized pieces can be the fastest and most direct route to the goal. As part of a  large retail corporation, this executive focused on culture change in concert  with the launch of a rebranding strategy for one of its divisions.

The culture  change work was positioned as an enabler to allow the new strategy to take root  and flourish. Because it was connected to real business goals and measurable  results, it gained traction and attention. In addition, the rebranding was a  success and consequently, the activities undertaken to help accomplish it were  highly regarded.

Sometimes eating the elephant can be overwhelming, so focusing  on just the elephant ear at first – perhaps with a sprinkle of powdered sugar -  can be much more appetizing and digestible.

In a few short hours, I gleaned valuable insights from these three leaders  that would have taken me many years to acquire on my own. I hope their wisdom  aids others who are helping develop and instill new cultures in their  organizations.

Deb Peluso is the President/CEO of The Change Collaborative, LLC based in  Columbus, Ohio. Connect with us at http://www.thechangecollaborative.com or on Twitter via  @changecollab.

By Luciell Potestas Fernan

No matter how skilled and savvy you are in your career, no matter how  fascinating and cutting edge your work now is, it will someday happen: You will  roll out of bed, wonder what you’re doing with your life, and think about making  a change.

Few things are as certain as middle-aged angst, that dreaded feeling that  somehow life has passed you by or you’ve simply missed it somehow.

You question your choices, bemoan your current circumstances, and agonize  over the future. You start thinking about hair plugs and working out more. You  have a sudden urge to trade in the old car for a racy new model or the old wife  for a racy new supermodel.

When you are closer to the end of your career than the beginning

But more often than not, your agonizing centers around your job. You’ve  always hated it, or you once loved it but there’s no challenge anymore. You’ve  plateaued, you’re bored, you hate the boss or the wunderkind who just zipped by  you on the organizational chart. You want to dump that vice presidency to run a  bar in Mazatlan.

After all, life is short and getting shorter by the day, and  you realize you are closer to the end of your career than the beginning.

Here’s where some of the career advisers out there go a little hay-wire,  pushing people into radical career shifts, urging them to find their “bliss.” I  remember watching as the leader of a group career guidance session, sponsored by  a service that shall go unnamed, cajoled one attendee-a man who seemed quite  happy working as a manager for a computer retailing company and who, in fact,  seemed justifiably proud of the coveted promotion he had just earned-to scrap it  all because she saw his face light up when he talked about playing the guitar as  a kid.

Whoa, Nelly. For all she knew, the guy may have been a lousy guitarist.  And not every fanciful dream of youth is worth pursuing, despite the malarkey  pushed by TV movies of the week. For a thirtyish guy with a family, the  suggestion was, in my mind, outrageous.

You’ve spent your whole life building up skills and expertise

The idea of a radical career shift holds a powerful appeal to those in the  throes of a middle-aged crisis, and certainly these seismic shifts do work for  some. But let’s face it: You’ve spent your whole life building up skills and  expertise; that’s your career currency, and it’s usually far more valuable in  the industry you’re already in.

Now, I recognize that some gung-ho Boy Scouts out there are shaking their  heads, certain they won’t fall prey to this dire condition. They’re too  enthusiastic, and their work is too vital. If they even smell some angst in the

For the other 99 percent of  us, here are some tales from the midst of the morass to help shake us from our  doldrums and get us moving again.

What to do after residing so long at one address?

For twenty-seven years, Richard Dahlberg toiled for Massachusetts Financial  Services. Then, when the company wouldn’t assign him more staff so that he could  aggressively push for growth in the mutual funds he managed, he decided he  needed a change of scenery.

But what to do after residing so long at one address? Mr. Dahlberg decided to  stay within his sphere of knowledge, the financial services industry. After  looking at posts in two banks and a mutual fund, Mr. Dahlberg got an offer to be  chief investment officer in the equity asset management group at Salomon Bros.  It wasn’t a sure bet.

Equity management had always been a poor stepchild at  Salomon, representing at that time just $1 billion of the firm’s $13 billion  under management. Mr. Dahlberg wondered how committed Salomon would be to the  relatively new business. He also worried about the fact that Salomon was just  coming off a run of trading scandals and financial setbacks.

And at fifty-five  years of age, he would be giving up a secure position where he had been quite  successful. In the previous ten years, he had built Massachusetts Financial’s  balanced fund assets to $4.5 billion from $215 million. “I could have stayed  where I was for another ten years and enjoyed the annuity,” he says.

You don’t always know where you are going to end up

Don Crosbie, by contrast, simply walked away from his job as chief financial  officer of Dallas-based InterVoice, because he needed a rest after ten intense  years of helping to build the telecommunications start-up. “I did some  consulting, some sailing, tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life,”  he says.

He spent a year flirting with investing in some companies and going on a few  job interviews before he decided to form Com Vest Partners, an investment  research boutique. The idle time didn’t worry him, he insists. He has an  explorer’s mentality, requiring new and exhilarating experiences. “You don’t  always know where you’re going to end up,” he says. “There’s always some  uncertainty, but in my mind, if you have the confidence, a door will open for  you.”

In contrast with Mr. Dahlberg, he believes that trying to forge a new career  while immersed in the old one usually doesn’t work. “You end up getting  trapped,” he says.

Take your time and evaluate a number of situations

While Mr. Crosbie would appear to have made a radical break, closer scrutiny  reveals that his new job trades on his well-developed financial analysis skills.  “It wasn’t as if I were going to be an astronaut,” he says.

Many midlifers, fearful that opportunities will dwindle with age, grab the  first job that seems to offer change. Take your time and “evaluate a number of  situations,” Mr. Dahlberg advises. “You have to find the right fit for you.”

If you want a more dramatic change, you have to do something drastic.

“I didn’t want to wake up at fifty one morning with someone in Seattle deciding our unit made no sense”

After sixteen years in the building materials business, Hoyt Gier was uneasy.  The senior sales executive was paid well, enjoyed his job, and figured he had a  reasonable shot at the CEO post. But, “I went to work for a Canadian firm, which  was bought by Belgians, which was bought by Germans,” he says. “I didn’t want to  wake up at fifty with someone in Brussels or Heidelberg or Seattle deciding our  unit made no sense; that petrified me.”

But he wondered how marketable he would be. “I worked for different  companies, but to someone outside the industry, it would look as if I’d been  doing the same thing my whole career,” he explains. So, at age forty, he quit  his six-figure job in Seattle and schlepped his wife and three young children to  Hanover, New Hampshire, and Dart-mouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business for an  MBA. It cost him about $250,000 in tuition and lost income, which he paid for by  selling his Redmond, Washington, home. The move puzzled his bosses, he says.  Even his parents questioned his judgment.

Is an MBA a panacea for middle-aged managers floundering in a sea of uncertainty?

In industries such as investment banking and consulting, the MBA is  practically a required entry card for those with management ambitions  -especially for those coming from completely different backgrounds. As Mr. Gier  notes, “You simply can’t get from where I started to where I am going without  coming through here.” Or someplace like it. He adds: “To break into something  completely different, you have to do something to catch someone’s  attention.”

Is an MBA a panacea for middle-aged managers floundering in a sea of  uncertainty? Is this the way for them to overcome the reluctance of companies to  invest in managers with gray hair who command six-figure incomes?

Of course not.

Some lack the inclination to return to an intense school program at such an  advanced age. In some industries, also, the degree would provide only a marginal  benefit. Before making such a precipitous and expensive leap, study the  backgrounds of the people who are successful in your company or industry of  choice. Are they MBA holders? What gaps exist between their experiences and  skills and yours, and are there simpler and less expensive ways to fill those  gaps?

MBA’s mean exposure to a wider range of possibilities and a widely accepted credential

Still, for managers seeking a midcourse correction, MBAs mean exposure to a  wider range of possibilities and a widely accepted credential. With high demand  for MBA holders, companies start recruiting early. In his second week of  classes, Mr. Gier recalls presentations by Ford, Microsoft, Dell, and Morgan  Stanley. He soon discovered the world of private client services.

It was just the kind of relationship-driven business he wanted. Following a  summer internship with Goldman, Sachs, he accepted the firm’s offer of full-time  employment after graduation. He couldn’t be happier about it. “Tuck exposed me  to many business possibilities new to me or previously thought to be out of  reach,” he says. “The business world looks a lot bigger to me now than it did  just a couple of years ago.”

Throughout his transition, Mr. Gier’s age wasn’t as much of an issue as he  feared. Interviewers never mentioned it directly, choosing instead to ask how he  would feel working with or reporting to a twenty-seven-year-old. “My response  was, ‘If I didn’t think I could run with these people in the workforce, I  wouldn’t have come here,’” Mr. Gier says.

“MBA’s from a top school opens doors, others do not”

Still, he acknowledges that his path isn’t for everybody. The tough,  competitive environment of the school-he worked late most nights on group  projects-is exhausting. And if you can’t land in one of the better schools, he  advises, forget it. “An MBA from a top school opens doors other MBAs do not,” he  says.

Further, he says, don’t go if you’re satisfied with your job, your career  path, your company’s prospects, and your opportunities to advance and find  challenging assignments. Don’t go if you’re convinced other companies, inside  your industry and out, will gladly pay for your skills and experience. Finally,  he says, don’t go if you don’t have the total support of your spouse. This kind  of change isn’t for the risk averse.

Start your career at http://www.jobsciti.com

By Tinker Barnett

In 2005, nearly 60% of human resource professionals in large companies  reported conflict between younger and older workers. This has  not changed much today. Some business owners and managers in my community are so  frustrated with young workers that they have decided not to hire them ever  again.

I am always sorry to hear this because not hiring young people is not a  solution. Rather, it is a lose-lose situation for companies that want to remain  successful in the long-term and for Generation Y (Gen Y) who are increasingly  unemployed and lack work experience.

There is a better way.

If you are a business owner or manager age 45 to 70, it is possible that Gen  Y will not begin to think and act the way you do at work, not soon enough  anyway. Openness and willingness to look at new ways of getting-work-done is a  faster, longer-lasting way out of frustration at work.

At first, it may feel like you are giving-in to your least-experienced  workers and as though you’ve relinquished power and control. It is important to  know that frustration with employees is less about Generation Y and more about  the “waves of change” they ride. Change causes all of us to feel a lack of  confidence until we accept it and take responsibility to work with it.

Gen Yers to set the norm in the future

Recent research projects that Gen Yers will set the new norm for the  workplace in 2014 when they become 50% of the workforce. They will be put into  key leadership positions faster and have less time to get ready than Boomers  did. If this is true, it is good to start listening now to how Generation Y  employees intend to make the workplace better. Maybe you will want to get a head  start on them.

Here are 4 Clues for how Generation Y will change the workplace once they are  in charge:

Clue #1. Meetings will be productive and most will last only 30 minutes.  Everyone will come prepared and know exactly what the team is doing. Gen Y hates  to waste time and this is causing some of the greatest conflict among  generations.

Clue #2. Gen Y will promote people who are clear about who are competent,  trustworthy, and relate to employees in ways that inspire them to be their best,  not because they are senior and have “put in more time”.

Clue #3. Gen Y will find mentors to get their careers jump-started, throwing  out the “sink-or-swim” style of management. They will be terrific mentors  themselves, bringing “mentoring-up” to the workplace and teaching values of  collaboration, innovation, and social connection to the next generation of  workers.

Clue #4. Gen Y will re-invent retirement as many retreats – not one, spread  out over time. The economy is too uncertain and they will live too long to  regularly sacrifice family and fun in hopes of an extended period for doing what  they really want to do (like their parents expected). For Gen Y, living is for  today, not to be put-off.

And, if you can take time to get to know Gen Y employees, they will want to  learn from you and you will have less frustration at work.

Workplace frustration can be minimized

Bottom line, workplace frustration can be minimized when people of different  generations are understood and validated for characteristics they are pretty  much stuck with.

Want to know more? I invite you to claim your free instant access to my white  paper, “Workplace Frustration: How to Reduce It and Manage Generation Y For An  Increase in Company Profits”. For a limited time you’ll find it at my slide-up  when you visit http://GenerationalDivideCoaching.com.

From Tinker Barnett, Bridges LLC

“Connecting Generations in the Workplace”

Keep Your Business Alive

The business world is a highly competitive and rapidly changing domain. The  way to survive is to reshape according to the needs of circumstances. In  leadership, you have to accept the fact of change.

Resisting change leads  nowhere but a dead end. You and your organization are going to be stalled, if  not completely shut down.

Gaining and keeping customers keep a business alive. Your customers want  excellent service and more. If you cannot provide these to customers, your  competitors will. That´s why your organization needs to reshape itself quickly  to change so it can offer what customers need.

Top leadership in the  organization realizes the significance of preserving their resources. They  cannot just throw away money at every problem. Executive leaders also know the  importance of having highly committed and flexible workers. As a leader, you  need to be able to implement action that allows the organization to quickly and  smoothly adapt to change.

4 Different Changes Of An Organization

Throughout its growth, an organization normally goes through 4 different  changes:

• Formative period. The organization is just getting started. The  founding vision or purpose of the organization has no formal definitions yet.  This is a stage of a lot of experimentation and innovation. Changes of  creativity and discovery enable the organization to beat obstacles and achieve  breakthroughs.
• Rapid growth period. The organization implements direction and  organization so that it can sustain its growth and solidify gains. The purpose  of the organization and on the mainstream business is being clarified and  defined.
• Mature period. The organization develops a strong growth curve that  levels off to the general velocity of the economy. Change and modifications are  needed so that the organization can maintain established markets and achieve  maximum gains.
• Declining period. This is a rough ride for the organization. It  often means reorganization and downsizing. Tough objectives are developed,  although there is compassionate implementation. To survive, the organization  needs to get out of the old and cross the threshold towards something new. There  is starting again of the four periods, beginning a new process that determines  success.

Depending on the pace, some organizations may go through with the 4-period  change process rapidly, while others undergo these growth stages for decades. If  there is no follow- through with the needed changes in any of the 4 growth  periods, an organization would falter and eventually die.

“Continual Improvement

In Japanese, there is the concept of “kaizen” which means “continual  improvement”. The quest to do better is never-ending. Changing is doing better.  Standing still makes the competition get ahead. Congregate your resources and  solidify your strength so you can revitalize, move on, catch up with the pace  and get to the top.

By the way, do you want to learn more about leadership in your company? If  so, download your FREE eBook here: Guide to Elegant Courage Leadership

Jodi and Mike specialize in executive coaching with individuals and teams. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

No Time For Nonsense In The Workplace

Your workplace is an area with lots of objectives to meet, tasks to  accomplish, undertakings to resolve, and deadlines to beat. Along the way, you  face lots of hindrances. You undergo a lot of distractions, problems, and  challenges. With all these in your head, you could not afford to think about the  little issues in your workplace. But, you will be forced to face a bothersome  concern about tireless whiners when you overhear their nonsense whatnots.

The sickening cry of a whiner is something you do not want to hear in the  middle of your intense operation. But you, as a leader, may not be able to  control this expressive act of your employee when he is in such an annoying  mood. You are absolutely aware that if this whining persists in a couple of  minutes, everybody will be distracted. You will be furious. Your work will be  disrupted. Things will be in chaos.

How To Deal With A Workplace Whiner

• There are several ways to deal with whiners. First is that you don’t feed  the dog. Never fall in the trap of that individual. If you express sympathy to a  whiner’s sentiments, he or she will just realize that whining is a good trick to  attract your attention and lure you. You become easily influenced and fooled.  The whiner will redirect you, and control you instead. Whining is not a  therapeutic coping mechanism. You must not tolerate this in your area as much as  possible.
• Second, impose clearly that if someone unconsciously whines, let them know  that it may only be allowed at a tolerable level. Let the whiner know that it  should last only for several seconds, with no annoying repetitions nor  infuriating mumbling, nagging, etc. Call their attention right away. Correct the  wrongful act, so that you will show your employees that you are not happy with  the whining.
• Lastly, as a leader, it is best that beforehand, oblige everybody to not  engage at all in whining. Your workplace is not a whine zone. Let everyone  understand that you are serious and strict about it. You have lots of things to  do. Tireless complaints will not help any of you to finish your goals.

For a whiner, it becomes helpful for them to do their tasks if he mumble,  nag, or whine while working. These acts become their way to resist but still  persist. It is their way to express themselves. But for everybody else, a  whining co-worker is a nuisance. It does not bring any good to the success of  the organization, but rather a headache.

By the way, do you want to learn more about leadership in your company? If  so, download your FREE ebook here: Guide to Elegant Courage Leadership

Jodi and Mike specialize in executive coaching with individuals and teams. http://lighthouse-leadership.com